Skandia Shelves — So Cool But So Unavailable

IMG_1413, originally uploaded by espeedy123.

This is a photo of one wall in my home office. The shelves are by Skandia, and I bought them a couple years ago at the Container Store. Originally they served as a pantry shelf at our last house. At the time they seemed outrageously expensive, but after having owned them for a couple years I am convinced of their utility and longevity. The pieces are infinitely adjustable and changeable and break down into manageable flat sections for moving or storage. I am so glad I bought these instead of the IKEA shelves I also considered.

I also find it appealing how European these shelves seem to me. When we stayed on a sheep farm near Auckland, New Zealand, the farmers had this type of shelving throughout their cottage. I know NZ is not Europe and that my ranch house is about as far from a cool oceanside cottage as it could get, but hey … they are still cool shelves.

The only trouble is — Container Store no longer carries them! I’ve heard more than one story about why. One salesperson told me the manufacturing facility moved and that they couldn’t keep up with demand. Another said it had to do with the falling price of the dollar since these are imported from Scandinavia. I am more inclined to believe the latter.

Apparently you can still special order particular shelf pieces through the Container Store, but it takes multiple weeks for the items to arrive. I am unsure how pricing is affected but would expect it to be more. They said eventually they might carry the line again. Hopefully they will.